The Willow Glen Resident

Photograph by Skye Dunlap

Strike A Pose: Willow Glen Middle School student Anthony Howell, 12, leads a class at San Jose's Kantoniemi Karate Academy. Howell recently earned a gold medal in national competition in Orlando, Fla.

Willow Glen's 'Karate Kid' wins national amateur championship

By John Pancharian

A real-life Karate Kid lives right here in Willow Glen. Twelve-year-old Anthony Howell recently fought his way to the gold in the Amateur Athletics Union's National Championship in Orlando, Fla. Howell also helps teach martial arts classes and says he plans one day to be the adult international champion--a goal his coach says he could attain.

Howell, who will attend Willow Glen Middle School in the fall, started studying kaju kenpo four years ago at the Kantoniemi Karate Academy in San Jose. He has earned himself a brown belt--one step below a black belt--and even helps teach the junior classes. He spends one or two hours practicing every weekday, often puts in time on the weekends as well, works even harder as competitions approach and still says he enjoys it all.

"I had to win every bout to win nationals," Howell says, explaining if he had lost one, he could have followed in the standings behind the athlete who beat him and hoped at best for a chance at third place. Still, he says he wasn't nervous. "It's not always about winning," Howell adds. "If you know you did your best, then you've already won. But if you don't do that well and you win anyway, it's like you didn't really win."

Neither did the fights themselves, or the chance of getting hurt, faze Howell, he says.

"That's always a possibility," his mother, Cleo Howell, says. "All we can really tell him is do your best and train hard. That can at least give him an edge."

But Howell does admit he was a bit scared fighting in an international competition in Las Vegas. "I was just kinda nervous 'cause the kids were so big; they were taller than my dad," he says.

"He's really a good student: He tries hard, and he follows instructions," Kantoniemi's head instructor Richard Barefield says. Himself a black belt and an international champion, Barefield believes Howell has the kicks to be an adult international champion.

"He's by far more talented than I was at his age," Barefield says, and praised Howell's determination and willingness to work for his goal. "It's not what we did today [that wins tournaments], but what we did leading up to today," he says.

In spite of his fighting ability, Howell remains level-headed. "I don't really get into a lot of fights," he says. "Some kids wanted to fight once, but I walked away." In tournaments as well, Howell says it doesn't pay to become angry, explaining rage only causes him to become sloppy.

Barefield also says the only fight a martial artist really wins is the one he avoids. "If we actually have to defend ourselves, everybody kind of loses right there," he says.

The martial art kenpo, or "fist law," migrated from China to Japan about 700 years ago. At about the turn of the century, grand master Kiyoka Yoshita brought it to Hawaii, and in 1953, Paul Pung opened the first mainland commercial school in San Francisco. The style, sometimes called kenpo karate or kenpo jujitsu, uses simple and efficient techniques including strikes, kicks and joint locks to disable an opponent. The kaju kenpo Barefield teaches is similar to standard kenpo, but with more emphasis on practical self-defense, as opposed to classical style.

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